ArticleCurrent opinion in behavioral sciences2022
Pharmacological interventions for Problematic Usage of the Internet (PUI): A narrative review of current progress and future directions.
Article in Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of WeChat Public Account Intervention Based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model Among College Students With Internet Addiction: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Trialing a simple mobile phone dependency intervention strategy among Chinese college students.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Health response to problematic usage of the internet: A global survey on trends, available treatments and key challenges.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- Virtual reality assessment of cognitive performance in adults with ADHD and problematic internet use: a pilot study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A Narrative Review of Digital Addiction and Health: A New Challenge for Modern Medicine.Cureus · 2025Review
- Forms of interventions for problematic usage of the internet: A scoping review.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Sleep Quality as a Mediator of Internet Gaming Disorder and Executive Dysfunction in Adolescents: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Beyond screen time: The core influences of problematic screen use on adolescent development networks.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- A comprehensive evaluation of the neurocognitive predictors of problematic alcohol use, eating, pornography, and internet use: A 6-month longitudinal study.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2024Article
- Problematic Use of Internet Associates with Poor Quality of Life via Psychological Distress in Invididuals with ADHD.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Article
- Impaired control over gaming scale (ICOGS): Development, confirmatory factor validation, and psychometric evaluation.Addictive behaviors reports · 2023Article
- Neurobiological risk factors for problematic social media use as a specific form of Internet addiction: A narrative review.World journal of psychiatry · 2023Review
- Internet severity and activities addiction questionnaire (ISAAQ): Psychometrics of item response theory and clustering of online activities.Comprehensive psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Problematic Usage of the Internet (PUI) represents a spectrum of excessive online behaviors and is linked to reduced quality of life and high rates of psychiatric comorbidity, with growing demand for effective treatments. This paper provides a narrative review of pharmacological studies for PUI conducted to date. Most pharmacological treatment trials have focused on bupropion and escitalopram or involved samples with common comorbidities and used current treatments for the relevant comorbid disorders. Overall, there remains a dearth of high-quality evidence, with the current literature lacking control groups, large sample sizes, validated outcome measures, longer term treatment and follow-up periods. The literature cannot at this stage determine evidence-based pharmacological treatments for PUI.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.